Watkinsville is becoming model for development

Watkinsville, the picturesque county seat of Oconee County, is working hard to market itself as a center of arts tourism, to the point of beginning to bill itself as the "Art Land of Georgia."

Perhaps apropos of that, Watkinsville residents and their city council have themselves been engaged in something of an "art" project. With the help of a $15,000 Quality Growth Grant from the state Department of Community Affairs, the community has for the past several months been exploring the "art" of developing a land-use and zoning plan that will help the city retain and enhance its small-town feel. In a broad sense, the community is looking to return to the past, when small towns were walkable communities characterized by mixed-use development that put business, professional, recreational and residential uses close together.

The city's effort is laudable in that officials and residents are, and have been, taking it seriously. Far too often in small - and not-so-small - towns across Georgia, land-use plans and zoning ordinances are cookie-cutter affairs filled with boilerplate language that may or may not fit the specific circumstances of a given locale. But having such plans in place helps ensure that communities will have continued access to an array of state funds, so city officials dutifully put them in place and then, for the most part, forget about them.

Watkinsville's city council and residents have taken a decidedly different approach, and have spent time developing plans that will become real guidelines for shaping the city's future. The city is taking full advantage of the considerable expertise offered through the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center, a state agency that provides technical assistance to governments across Northeast Georgia. The city is also seizing the moment by taking advantage of the fact the five-member city council and the mayor are united in their commitment to mapping out a workable future for the community, a commitment in which political considerations have been left at the door. Residents, too, have been deeply committed to the process, with dozens showing up for the "visioning" sessions earlier this year, sessions that helped the mayor and council and the RDC get a sense of how the community wants to shape itself in the years to come.

Perhaps one of the best results of the process has been a commitment to a flexible set of development guidelines. As a result, the council will be able to work with individual property owners and developers to "craft" residential, commercial and other types of development, rather than just ensuring that development adheres to a set of inflexible rules.

And while historic preservation is an element of the development plan for Watkinsville, the city is more interested in ensuring that new development matches the "feel" of the older residential and business corridors than in hamstringing those who own or buy the city's older properties into slavish attention to historical correctness.

All of which is not to say that Watkinsville's flexibility will make it a haven for developers looking to work any angle they can to get their projects built in the city. Allowable development densities are designed to keep the community from becoming crowded, and developers who want to bargain for increased density will have to commit to setting aside space for parks, playgrounds, greenspace or civic buildings, or commit to construction of a mix of housing types.

With the current direction of planning and zoning as a baseline, the city of Watkinsville is becoming a place to watch, in terms of learning how to handle the pressures of growth in a reasonable fashion. It appears the city is well on its way to becoming one of this area's most livable communities for generations to come.